SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A San Francisco man was arrested for allegedly posing as a doctor and performing liposuction on a woman while smoking a cigar, prosecutors said.
Carlos Guzmangarza, 49, was arrested Thursday and faces charges of practicing medicine without a license, assault with force most likely to cause great bodily harm, battery causing serious bodily harm, false impersonation, identity theft and grand theft, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday. His bail was set at $750,000 and he could get up to 12 years in prison if he is found guilty.
Guzmangarza allegedly offered to perform liposuction on the woman for $3,000.
Stephanie Ong Stillman, spokeswoman for the district attorney, said Guzmangarza ran a bogus clinic on Mission Street called the Derma Clinic, where he performed the procedure on the woman in 2010. Prosecutors say Guzmangarza smoked a cigar during the operation and had his patient hold her own IV bag.
Guzmangarza also allegedly injected the woman's daughter's face with an unknown substance to treat her acne.
Stillman said the fake doctor may have victimized other patients. Anyone with information on Guzmangarza was asked to call investigator Doug Becker of the Medical Board of California at (408) 437-3680 or Lt. Carlos Sanchez of the San Francisco district attorney's office at (415) 551-9500.
